How to Read an Insect

Just because insects are small most people tend to think they’re simple. In my latest book, I show just how wrong this view is. From clone soldiers of tiny wasps to ant-decapitating dung beetles I showcase some of their remarkable lives. Lavishly illustrated with stunning macrophotography and original artwork, this book lifts the lid on the lives of these endlessly fascinating animals. 

Gonzalo Giribet and Greg Edgecombe kindly let me use the arthropod phylogenetic tree, which is shown in the introduction.

Extra images

I only had room for a certain number of images in the book. There were others I wanted to include, alas, there just wasn’t space.

Oil beetle (Meloe corvinus), laying eggs. Japan #18993633
P36: Female oil beetle laying eggs (Image: Auscape Photo Library)
Image - Meloe variegatus | BioLib.cz
Page 36: Oil beetle (Meloe variegatus) triungulins (Image: Stanislav Krejčík)

Page 37: Telephone-pole beetle (Micromalthus debilis) life cycle (source)
Rhamphomyia longicauda (long-tailed dance fly)
Page 39: Feathery legs and inflatable air-sacs of some dance flies. Female Rhamphomyia longicauda (Images by David Funk).
Why is the coremata of Creatonotos gangis huge? - Biology Stack Exchange
Page 39: Extended coremata of Creatonotos gangis. These produce pheromones to females.
Male bug shows off his testes, coiled around him
Page 39: The testes of Drosophila bifurca fruit flies make up 11 percent of the dry body mass. A male is encircled by uncoiled testes. Image: Scott Pitnick
Giant mess of a tangled tube, like spaghetti
Page 39: One sperm cell from Drosophila bifurca. That ball of “hair” is the flagellum. (Image Romano Dallai)

stalk-eyed fly
Page 41: Achias rothschildi (Image: Natural History Museum)
Butterfly spermatophore indigestible outer envelope separated from soft insides.
Page 43: Pieris rapae spermatophore. Here, researchers from the Morehouse Lab have separated the indigestible outer envelope from the soft soluble “inner matrix” to illustrate these two parts of the spermatophore (Image: Morehouse Lab https://magazine.uc.edu/editors_picks/recent_features/butterflies.html)
An open tooth-filled structure inside a female butterfly reproductive tract.
Page 43: The signum, a hinged, chewing jaw inside a female Pieris rapae female’s reproductive tract helps her to mechanically break into the male spermatophore (Image: Morehouse Lab https://magazine.uc.edu/editors_picks/recent_features/butterflies.html).
Page 43: Malachius bispustulatus courtship. Female (R) taking secretions from male’s antennal glands (Image: Mark Horton https://flic.kr/ps/wXSkh)
FIG. 1. Photos of Utetheisa ornatrix. (A) Adult, at rest, on pods of one of the larval foodplants (Crotalaria mucronata). (B) Larva within pod of another of the foodplants (Crotalaria spectabilis). (C) Adult, emitting defensive froth. (D) Adults mating. (E) Adult male, with coremata everted, courting female (laboratory test). (F) Coremata, everted. (G) Spermatophores, excised from bursa of just-mated females. (Bar inA = 1 cm; bars in F and G = 1 mm.)
Pages 43-44: Utetheisa ornatrix. (A) Adult, at rest, on pods of one of the larval foodplants (Crotalaria mucronata). (B) Larva within pod of another of the foodplants (Crotalaria spectabilis). (C) Adult, emitting defensive froth. (D) Adults mating. (E) Adult male, with coremata everted, courting female (laboratory test). (F) Coremata, everted. (G) Spermatophores, excised from bursa of just-mated females. (Bar inA = 1 cm; bars in F and G = 1 mm.) (Images: Eisner and Meinwald https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/92/1/50.full.pdf)
A male zeus bug clings to the back of a female. Her nuptial gift to him is a place to stay while they mate, complete with board -- a proteinaceous wax secreted from glands on her back.
Page 44: Zeus bugs (Phoreticovelia disparata) (Image: Science Photo Library).
Image
Page 45: Mating ball of ivy bees (Colletes hederae). An unfortunate female is at the centre of these clamouring males (Image: https://twitter.com/NE_Thames/status/1044549668494036993?s=20)
Page 45: Thynnine wasps. Females are wingless and much smaller than the males (Image: Simon Grove https://flic.kr/ps/2rZSG2)
Page 50: Male giant water bug. After mating, the female lays her eggs upon the back of the male, where they remain, protected from predators, until they hatch. The egg-laden males are a remarkable sight. Image: Jim Rather.
Page 50: Some tortoise beetles guard their eggs and larvae. Image: Arthur Anker.
The leaf-rolling weevil A. praecellens and host Isodon plants a,... | Download Scientific Diagram
Page 50: Leaf-rolling weevils fashion leaves into protective shelters for their young. These images show the weevil Apoderus praecellens on its host-plant Isodon sp. Image: Higuchi and Kawakita https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335569777_Leaf_shape_deters_plant_processing_by_an_herbivorous_weevil/figures?lo=1

Further reading

Introduction

Blackiston DJ, Silva Casey E, Weiss MR. Retention of Memory through Metamorphosis: Can a Moth Remember What It Learned As a Caterpillar? PLoS One [Internet]. 2008 Mar 5 [cited 2020 Dec 8];3(3). Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2248710/

Chen P-J, Awata H, Matsushita A, Yang E-C, Arikawa K. Extreme Spectral Richness in the Eye of the Common Bluebottle Butterfly, Graphium sarpedon. Front Ecol Evol [Internet]. 2016 [cited 2020 Dec 8];4. Available from: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fevo.2016.00018/full

Diakova AV, Makarova AA, Polilov AA. Between extreme simplification and ideal optimization: antennal sensilla morphology of miniaturized Megaphragma wasps (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae). PeerJ [Internet]. 2018 Nov 30 [cited 2020 Dec 8];6. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6276593/

Faisal AA, White JA, Laughlin SB. Ion-Channel Noise Places Limits on the Miniaturization of the Brain’s Wiring. Current Biology. 2005 Jun 21;15(12):1143–9.

Gadenne C, Barrozo RB, Anton S. Plasticity in Insect Olfaction: To Smell or Not to Smell? Annual Review of Entomology. 2016;61(1):317–33.

Giribet G, Edgecombe GD. The Phylogeny and Evolutionary History of Arthropods. Current Biology. 2019 Jun 17;29(12):R592–602.

Göpfert MC, Hennig RM. Hearing in Insects. Annual Review of Entomology. 2016;61(1):257–76.

Hansson BS, Stensmyr MC. Evolution of Insect Olfaction. Neuron. 2011 Dec 8;72(5):698–711.

Hall MJR, Martín-Vega D. Visualization of insect metamorphosis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2019 Oct 14;374(1783):20190071.

Hustert R. Giant and dwarf axons in a miniature insect, Encarsia formosa, (Hymenoptera, Calcididae). Arthropod Structure & Development. 2012 Nov 1;41(6):535–43.

Juusola M, Dau A, Song Z, Solanki N, Rien D, Jaciuch D, et al. Microsaccadic sampling of moving image information provides Drosophila hyperacute vision. Rieke F, editor. eLife. 2017 Sep 5;6:e26117.

Kawahara AY, Plotkin D, Espeland M, Meusemann K, Toussaint EFA, Donath A, et al. Phylogenomics reveals the evolutionary timing and pattern of butterflies and moths. PNAS. 2019 Nov 5;116(45):22657–63.

Iwamoto H. Structure, function and evolution of insect flight muscle. Biophysics (Nagoya-shi). 2011 Feb 17;7:21–8.

Misof B, Liu S, Meusemann K, Peters RS, Donath A, Mayer C, et al. Phylogenomics resolves the timing and pattern of insect evolution. Science. 2014 Nov 7;346(6210):763–7.

Niven JE, Farris SM. Miniaturization of Nervous Systems and Neurons. Current Biology. 2012 May 8;22(9):R323–9.

Polilov AA. Anatomy of adult Megaphragma (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae), one of the smallest insects, and new insight into insect miniaturization. PLoS One [Internet]. 2017 May 3 [cited 2020 Dec 8];12(5). Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5414980/

Polilov AA. Consequences of miniaturization in insect morphology. Moscow Univ BiolSci Bull. 2015 Jul 1;70(3):136–42.

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Truman JW, Riddiford LM. The evolution of insect metamorphosis: a developmental and endocrine view. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2019 Oct 14;374(1783):20190070.

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Warrant EJ. The remarkable visual capacities of nocturnal insects: vision at the limits with small eyes and tiny brains. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 2017 Apr 5;372(1717):20160063.

Chapter 1

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Arnqvist G, Jones TM, Elgar MA. Reversal of sex roles in nuptial feeding. Nature. 2003 Jul;424(6947):387–387.

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Chapter 2

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Chapter 3

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Chapter 4

Berens AJ, Hunt JH, Toth AL. Comparative transcriptomics of convergent evolution: different genes but conserved pathways underlie caste phenotypes across lineages of eusocial insects. Mol Biol Evol. 2015 Mar;32(3):690–703.

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Canciani M, Arnellos A, Moreno A. Revising the Superorganism: An Organizational Approach to Complex Eusociality. Front Psychol [Internet]. 2019 [cited 2020 Dec 8];10. Available from: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02653/full

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Delaplane KS. Emergent Properties in the Honey Bee Superorganism. Bee World. 2017 Jan 2;94(1):8–15.

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Chapter 5

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